REVIEW: Larry Crowne

MEET AVERAGE JOE

Even if the new film directed by Tom Hanks is without much drama, at least it is about real people and does not depend on CGI. It is also gratifying to see that an old fashioned romance-and-makeover movie has simple middle-aged characters, though Hanks and his co-star Julia Roberts are major stars and audience magnets.

Larry Crowne is an ordinary guy who doesn’t really deserve a movie made about him, but then Hanks co-wrote it with Nia Vardalos (of My Big Fat Greek Wedding) and directed it, so he can name it after his character—a star can be allowed that much vanity.

He plays the eponymous Larry Crowne (with an ‘e’), who is suddenly sacked because he is not educated enough. Recession-hit Larry sells his house and car, and commences the process of reinventing himself. He takes up a cooking job, joins a community college and sets about getting a life, even though falling for a teacher and falling in with scooter (how uncool is that!) gang could seem to some as not much of a life.

Julia Roberts plays the bored, alcoholic teacher with the exotic name of Mercedes Tainot, with a good-for-nothing husband and an unhappy marriage. She is just about as ready for a romance or a makeover as any woman in her place.

Meanwhile Larry gets help with his transformation—external, that is, internal you don’t see much—by the lovely Talia (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who makes him dump his boring clothes for biker guy black and a cooler haircut. That a scooter is not a Harley and the chubby, middle-aged Hanks is incapable of coolness is not really the point.

You have to commend Hanks for making a film not aimed at brainless bubble gummers. But he also makes it too cute for its own good. While it’s nice to see a film with nice, warm characters, the lack of conflict and any kind of graph can be a let down. If a film’s supporting characters are more interesting than the average Joe and Jane leads—like Larry’s economics teacher Dr. Matsutani (George Takei—remember Star Trek?) or his yard-sale addict neighbours (Cedric The Entertainer and Taraji P. Henson), then it is in trouble.

This is Hanks’s second film as director (15 years after That Thing You Do) and he makes for a serviceable helmer, but the writing needed a lot more spice.